ARRIVE AT self knowledge is to
arrive at God-realization. God-realization is different from
all other states of consciousness because they are
experienced through the medium of the individual mind,
whereas God-consciousness is not dependent upon the
individual mind. A medium is necessary for knowing anything
other than one's self: for knowing one's self no medium is
necessary. In fact, the association of consciousness with
the mind is a hindrance to the attainment of realization. As
the seat of the ego the individual mind is conscious of
being isolated. From it arises the limited individuality,
which at once feeds and is fed by the illusion of duality,
time and change. To know the self as it is, consciousness
has to be freed from the limitation of the individual mind.
In other words, the individual mind has to disappear while
consciousness is retained.

Throughout the life history of the
soul its consciousness grows 'with the individual mind and
the workings of consciousness proceed against its
background. Consciousness comes to be firmly embedded in the
individual mind. So when the mind is in abeyance
consciousness also disappears. The interdependence of the
individual mind and consciousness is illustrated by the
tendency to become unconscious when there is any effort to
stop mental activity through meditation.

The explanation of sleep

The phenomenon of sleep is not
essentially different from the lull of consciousness
experienced during meditation, though it is different in
origin. As the individual mind is continuously confronted by
the world of duality it is involved in conflict, and when
wearied by its struggle it wants to lose its identity as a
separate entity. It then recedes from the world of its own
creation and experiences a cessation of
consciousness.

The quiescence of mental activity in
sleep entails the submerging of consciousness, but this
cessation of conscious functioning is temporary because the
impressions that are stored in the mind cause it to return
to renewed activity, and after some time the psychic stimuli
are responsible for reviving conscious functioning. So sleep
is followed by wakefulness and wakefulness by sleep,
according to the law of alternating activity and rest; but
so long as the latent impressions in the mind are not undone
there is no annihilation of the individual mind or
emancipation of consciousness. In sleep the mind temporarily
forgets its identity, but does not lose its individual
existence. And when the person awakens from sleep he finds
himself subject to his existing limitations. There is
resurrection of consciousness, but it remains
mind-ridden.

The obstacle of the ego

The limited mind is the soil in
which the ego is rooted; and the ego perpetuates ignorance
through the many illusions in which it is caught. The ego
prevents the manifestation of infinite knowledge already
latent in the soul, and is the most formidable obstacle in
the attainment of God. A Persian poem says, "It is extremely
difficult to pierce through the veil of ignorance; for there
is a rock on fire". As the flame of fire cannot rise very
high if a rock is placed upon it, a desire to know one's own
true nature cannot lead to the truth as long as the burden
of the ego lies upon consciousness. Success in finding
oneself is rendered impossible by the ego, which persists
throughout the journey of the soul. Though more and more
detached as the soul advances on the Path, it remains until
the last stage of the seventh plane.

The ego is the centre of human
activity, and the attempts of the ego to secure its own
extinction may be compared with the attempt of a man to
stand on his own shoulders. Just as the eye cannot see
itself, the ego is unable to end its own existence. All that
it does to bring about self-annihilation only adds to its
existence, for it flourishes on the very efforts directed
against itself. Thus it is unable to vanish through its own
activity, though it succeeds in transforming its nature. The
vanishing of the ego is conditioned by the melting away of
the limited mind which is its seat.

The meaning of God-realization is
the emancipation of consciousness from the limitations of
the mind. When the individual mind is dissolved, the related
universe vanishes, and consciousness is no longer tied to
it. Consciousness then becomes unclouded and is illumined by
the Infinite Reality. While immersed in the bliss of
realization the soul is oblivious of objects in the universe
and in this respect it is as it were in sound sleep. But
there are many important differences between God-realization
and sleep. During sleep, the illusion of the universe
vanishes since consciousness is in abeyance; but there is no
conscious experience of God since this requires the
dissolution of the ego and the turning of full consciousness
towards the Ultimate Reality. Occasionally when the
continuity of deep sleep is interrupted, the soul may have
the experience of retaining consciousness without being
conscious of anything in particular. There is consciousness,
but not of the universe. It is consciousness of nothing.
Such experiences anticipate God-realization in which
consciousness is freed from the illusion of the universe and
manifests the infinite knowledge hidden by the
ego.

Difference between sleep and
God-realization

In sleep the individual mind
continues to exist though it forgets everything including
itself, and the latent impressions in the mind are a veil
between the submerged consciousness and the Infinite
Reality. Thus during sleep consciousness is submerged in the
shell of the individual mind, but has not yet been able to
emerge out of that shell. So though the soul has forgotten
its separateness from God and has attained unity with him,
it is unconscious of unity. In God-realization, however, the
mind does not merely forget itself but has (with all its
impressions) lost its identity; and the consciousness
hitherto associated with the individual mind is freed from
trammels and brought into direct unity with the Ultimate
Reality. Since there is no veil between consciousness and
the Ultimate Reality, the soul is fused with the Absolute,
and eternally abides in knowledge and bliss.

The manifestation of infinite
knowledge and unlimited bliss inconsciousness
is, however, confined to the soul that has attainedGod-realization. The Infinite Reality
in the God-realized soul hasthe
knowledge of its own Infinity; but such knowledge does not
belong to the unrealized soul, still subject to the illusion
of the universe. If God-realization were not a personal
attainment, the entire universe would come to an end as soon
as one man attained God-realization. This does not happen,
because God-realization is a personal state of consciousness
belonging to the one who has transcended the domain of the
mind. Others continue to remain in bondage, and can attain
it only by freeing their consciousness from the burden of
the ego and the limitations of the individual mind. Thus
God-realization has a direct significance only for the one
who has emerged from the time-process.

What was latent in the infinite
becomes manifest after the
attainment of God-realization, the soul discovers that it
has always been the Infinite Reality, and that its looking
upon itself as finite during the period of evolution and
spiritual advancement was an illusion. The soul also finds
that the infinite knowledge and bliss that it enjoys have
been latent in the Infinite Reality from the beginning of
time and that it became manifest at the moment of
realization. Thus the God-realized person does not become
different from what he was before realization. He remains
what he was: the difference that realization makes in him is
that while previously he did not consciously know his true
nature, he now knows it. He knows that he has never been
anything other than what he now knows himself to be, and
that he has been through a process of
self-discovery.

The process of attaining
God-realization is a game in which the beginning and the end
are one. The attainment of realization is nevertheless a
distinct gain. There are two kinds of advantages. One
consists in getting what we did not previously possess; the
other consists in realizing what we really are.
God-realization is of the second kind. However, there is an
infinite difference in the soul that has God-realization and
one that has not. Though the soul that has God-realization
has nothing it did not already possess, its explicit
knowledge makes God-realization of the highest significance.
The soul that is not God-realized experiences itself as
finite, and is constantly troubled by the opposites of joy
and sorrow. But the soul that has realization is lifted out
of them and experiences the Infinite.

In God-realization, separate
consciousness is discarded and duality is transcended in the
abiding knowledge of identity with the Infinite Reality. The
world of shadows is at an end and the curtain of illusion is
for ever drawn. The distress of the pursuits of limited
consciousness is replaced by the tranquillity and bliss of
truth-consciousness and the restlessness of temporal
existence is swallowed up in the peace of
eternity.